


A Change in Perspective

by Dovey



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Gen, Genin AU, Main Character Death, Minor Character Death, Multiple Pov, Non-Canonical Character Death, mission in wave
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22624237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dovey/pseuds/Dovey
Summary: When the mission in Wave goes south, it's Sakura who ends up paying for it. How many ways can the same story be told?
Relationships: Dai-nana-han | Team 7 & Haruno Sakura
Comments: 18
Kudos: 460





	A Change in Perspective

**Author's Note:**

> aka a short piece bc 1) my classes- which i love!!!- are VERY INTENSE right now so i can't work on any of my longer pieces much, & 2) i wanna work on writing other characters pov even tho i think it was obvious Sakura was still the one i felt most comfortable with. oh well! i feel like it was good practice at the others anyways !

This is what happens, if you asked Haku: 

Haku’s purpose is to complete the mission. That was the plan.

Zabuza handles the actual threat, the Copy Nin, and Haku will handle the rest- and he does. It’s simple. Easier than it should be.

He distracts the two genin who rush into the fight, traps them with his reflection and leaves them there. It will take them a long time, if at all, to figure out how to break out, or defeat his genjutsu wrapped up within the mirrors of ice. This leaves the third one, the weak one, the only one who stuck with the mission. Her mistake: If she had rushed in like the others, she’d have a chance at living like they do. Instead, she stands shakily in front of her client, and does not run. 

Haku can respect that. He has no idea what motivates her, not like that boy on her team, but he assumes it must be something important if it’s keeping her between him and his target. She has to know she won’t win this. 

Or, sadder still, maybe she doesn’t know as much. Maybe that’s just how weak she is, how fresh. Haku hopes that’s not the case, because either way she’s going to die. For her sake, he makes it quick.

The bridge builder suffers for it, The needles aimed to pierce her finishing her fast and him slowly. 

Haku dies soon after, but at least with the relief that he finished his last mission successfully. 

This is what happens, if you asked Sakura:

It hurts. 

She is cold. She is scared. She does what she remembers from her lessons, and she tries to slow her pulse, to bleed slower, as she stares at the glass cage trapping her teammates. She hopes they will get out soon, and know how to save her. She knows they won’t- she wouldn’t be able to fix this, and she’s the only team member who even tried to pay attention to first aid in class. She hates herself for wanting their help, anyways. 

It hurts. 

It starts to rain, when the mirrors begin to crack, and she starts to cry with it because it doesn’t matter how hard she tries to slow her pulse now, the water will wash away the blood and it will rush to replace itself until she is dead. There’s no point trying to fight it anymore- the world wants her dead, and this is proof. 

It hurts. 

She remembers Tazuna. She remembers he died. That means she did this for  _ nothing.  _ That makes the pain worse, somehow. At least he can’t hear her cry. The rain is pounding now, and her sensei is clashing so loudly with the missing nin from the mist, no one could hear her if she screamed, she thinks. She does not try. 

It hurts.

She waits. The boys get out, and rush to meet their sensei, to help him. 

The pain grows sharp, and then begins to fade. She sees Haku die. Sakura feels a vindictive pleasure, at that. At least he went first. She sees Naruto saying something, something she can’t hear to the missing nin, and then. Then the man helps them. Or they help the man. She doesn’t understand. She doesn’t  _ understand,  _ and she can’t hear, and she can’t see, and it doesn’t hurt.

It doesn’t hurt anymore. 

As she closes her eyes- or maybe they’re open, still, and the world is closing around her instead, she’s not entirely sure- she sees Sasuke to turn to look towards her, and she wonders. Will he be mad she failed the mission? 

She doesn’t have another thought after that. 

This is what happens, if you ask Sasuke:

He’s an idiot. He rushes into a trap with as much thought as Naruto, and spends far too long working to get back out. They both get hurt far worse then they should, fighting one boy, one boy  _ their age,  _ and how the hell is he supposed to beat Itachi if this was enough to nearly kill him? There’s always another prodigy, a better one, and that makes him bitter.

He doesn’t think about the mission. He doesn’t think about Tazuna. He doesn’t think about Haku, and he doesn’t- he doesn’t think about Sakura. He regrets that, later. 

He’s thinking about Itachi. 

He’s useless to help Kakashi, has to watch sensei handle it himself and then Naruto, fucking  _ Naruto,  _ manages to convince their enemy to be useful, at least, since neither of them can do shit in the upcoming fight. All he can think is, how would’ve this gone if he’d been as good as Itachi had been, at his age? Or if he’d had his family to train him that much longer? 

He’s not thinking about Sakura, or Tazuna, or the mission, when he turns back around. He’s thinking about Itachi, and his family, and his past, which is why he almost misses seeing the new bodies amongst the old. 

It’s like the massacre all over again. 

He’d thought- he’d thought they had  _ won.  _ Feebly, barely, but he and Naruto had both made it out of that deathtrap and Kakashi Sensei was still standing, and he’d never thought to consider that of any of them, it would be Sakura-

She’s already dead. Just like his family. There are no last words. There’s not even a last breath. There’s no way to change things. He’s too late to do anything, and neither Naruto or Kakashi has looked over when they’re both too distracted by the one-man war Zabuza is waging against the mob, and it’s like he’s alone. 

His eyes begin to sting, and for a moment, he is terrified he might be crying. His hands draw back sticky and red instead, and it is a relief. Whatever this is, it will end. If he started to cry now- he does not know if he would be able to stop. 

Here’s what happened, if you asked Tazuna:

They’re all too young. Even the sensei. He’s got grey hair, but shinobi don’t live that long, and he’s got the face of a much younger man than Tazuna wants to pretend he is. He won’t ask for details, because the guilt is bad enough as it is. 

The boys are too young to be this eager for battle, but he thinks, maybe that’s why they’re so willing in the first place. They don’t know better yet. He hopes they’ll be able to learn. That when they die, it won’t be after rushing in headfirst and eager for it. Then again- the girl. 

The girl-

The girl is too young to die. Especially not for his sake. 

That’s the deal he’d made, back when he’d made the request, and for a moment, all he can think is,  _ I figured a genin team was worth the cut in price.  _ He’d been rationalizing based off their skills, but he forgot what happens when a shinobi loses. 

He knows he’s an old, mean, drunk, because his last thoughts aren’t guilty ones. His last thoughts are that he’d wished he’d gone first, so he didn’t have to listen to the painful rattling wheeze as the kid draws her last breaths. 

Dying is a relief. He’s too old to watch a child die for his sake. When the world shutters, he sighs.

Here’s what happened, if you asked Naruto:

Things went shitty, but then he fixed them. Even bastard Sasuke helped out. Haku got treated like crap, but at least his old man cared about him in the end. Sensei did some real cool stuff, even if he’s kind of a loser still. Things are wrapping up so well, fitting into his world view even if it got knocked a little off-axis, and then. 

Then there is Sakura. 

The stinky bridgebuilder is dead, which sucks, because he’s why they’d been there in the first place, but he was also mean and old and he wasn’t  _ Sakura.  _

She’s not moving, and she’s not breathing, or blinking, and when he tries to get her to wake up Sasuke won’t let him, the fucking bastard, and he wants it to be Sasuke’s fault, he wants to be yell at someone, but there’s nobody to yell at. There’s nothing to fix this. 

This is the first time he’s lost someone, he realizes, that he ever had in the first place. If this is what it felt like for Sasuke- maybe he can forgive him for being such a dick all the time. 

Here’s what happened, if you asked Kakashi:

He fucked up.

Again. 

The casket seems too small. Her classmates haven’t learned that you’re supposed to grieve in silence, so they wail and sob in a way discomfiting to the realities of their job. Then things are very quiet. His team is very quiet. 

The shadows at the corners of his eyes start to look more like Obito then they did before. He wonders why it’s never Rin, why it’s never Sakura. Probably because that would be a relief, for a moment, and Obito just reminds him of his guilt.

He fucked up. 

He takes the team on another mission, and hopes he does not come back. 

**Author's Note:**

> i dont reply to comments often bc i easily get overwhelmed but fyi i have been reading every comment i get and some of y'all are so kind and sweet and i want u to know i really appreciate hearing from u on all my fics!! <3 
> 
> the discrepancies in order of death are intentional. i figured in all the chaos and both tazuna and sakura dying rather quietly, + haku so flashily, it was another matter of them projecting what they hope is the case in an uncertain situation (haku intends for sakura to die first, so he assumes he was successful at that, for example.) I have a personal read on the order, but I want to leave it up to ya'll to decide for yourselves when each of them passes away. Your personal angst-o-meter, if you will. 
> 
> anyways personal headcanon for this depressing AU: sasuke and naruto both end up spiraling INTENSELY from the trauma, the team fractures heavily even earlier, naruto ends up losing grip on his wordview and eventually loses control to an unreformed kurama and dies in the ensuing "stop the fox rampage". Sasuke ends up dying early too from pushing too hard on literally their VERY next mission (i get the feeling that despite being LABELED a prodigy, Sasuke is actually a slightly-above-average kid who works himself to death to keep up to a standard he sets for himself, which is partially why he gets so pissed when he meets kids who really are prodigies like Naruto who succeed without trying) and trying to take on a situation way above his skill level, basically kind of trying to do Naruto's whole 'try the impossible and somehow level up to succeed' thing that happens so often for Naruto in canon but instead it just. gets sasuke killed! major dead! maybe shoud've considered that as a possible outcome, itachi, and not given him such intense issues, hm?   
> despite kakashis best efforts he lives to be pretty old and eventually dies from choking on his food when he tries to eat it super quickly so nobody will see his face. at least he was never given another genin team?


End file.
